The beautiful art deco hidden theatre gem, The Dancehouse, is also home to one of Manchester's premiere dance training academies, The Northern Ballet School. Students who attend here are typically late teens / early twenties and have already decided that they want to make dance their career. The standard therefore is always extremely high.
Students choose which of two particular branches they wish to focus on, whether that be classical ballet or jazz, but in this showcase the whole school comes together and what is presented is a pot-pourri of pieces both familiar (items which have already been performed by the company) and a few completely new surprises. This evening though the focus seemed to be very much on Musical Theatre as a potted version (there's a pun in there....!) of 'Little Shop Of Horros' dominated the first act and 'The Addams Family' did the same in the second.
The evening started beautifully with classical ballet danced to the music of George Gerschwin. Two things that would not normally be put together, but it actually worked surprisingly well. A beautifully lit and stark open set with star curtain behind, highlighting the dancers stood as statues whilst one male dancer takes each in turn. It was simple, but effective. The Gerschwin music continued for the next piece, using a very large group of dancers: this was a bright, bold and highly energetic tap dance.
Following this was a piece of contemporary ballet, 'Distraction'. This I found quite interesting since listening to the music there were two very distinct tempos working in apposition with each other; a slow and rhythmic undercurrent similar to a 'walking bass' line in jazz music, whilst above this there was a faster more urgent melody. The choerographer (Anthea Garrett) had the dancers mirroring both melodies / tempos in their dance, making for a rather compelling piece of dance-theatre.
Rosie Carter then came on to sing, 'Once Upon A December', which she did so quite beautifully. She was aided visually by a small group of dancers. Following this and we are back to classical ballet once more as Airi Aoki and Lucas Holden danced a pas-de-deux entitled, 'Enchantment'. This piece was one of my favourite in the whole showcase as the lifts were executed with elan and aplomb, and the whole looked completely graceful and effortless [exactly how ballet should look, even though we all know that it in reality isn't!]
The first act finished with several numbers from 'Little Shop Of Horrors'. I have seen this performed by this company before and so it is difficult to find anything new to say. I truly enjoyed Laurie Oliver's interpretation of Seymour, and although Cerys Salter didn't quite hit the character of Audrey on the head, her rendition of 'Somewhere That's Green' was nicely sung. The whole section was taken very much tongue-in-cheek and upbeat, and I did enjoy the choreography, especially for 'Mean Green Mother...'.
Back to the ballet again to start the second act, and this time, completely tradionally, with Airi Aoki performing Tchaikovsky's 'Dance Of The Flowers', with Judith Font and Julia Marwinski as lead flowers and a small corps. I have no doubt having seen Aoki several times throughout her training at this school, that she will make a huge success as a ballet dancer. It is little wonder the school have continually favoured her with principal roles.
Following this and a complete change of mood as Emcee Gabriel Heathman took us through his narcissistic [the character, not him!] rendition of The Money Song from 'Cabaret'. I enjoyed this number greatly and the choreography (Lee Lomas) was excellent.
A contemporary dance called 'Cheshire Cat' followed but as good as this was, it paled into insignificance since following it came the showstopping number of the evening, and my favourite piece of the show. The six young gentlemen who seem to be the only males within the company came together for a high energy, US stomp session, 'Feet Don't Fail Me Now'. A really upbeat tap routine with leaps and snazzy moves galore. All credit to them, they did try and get the audience to whoop and clap along, but sadly, the typical English reaction to this was just to clap politely at the end of the piece. Well, you certainly got my vote chaps.... superb!
& Burn came next, which was a nicely danced piece of contemporary ballet choreographed by one of the students, Julia Marwinski. But again, this was eclipsed by what followed, which was The Addams Family sequence. Again, I have seen these numbers performed before and so again trying to find new things to say is not easy. Suffice to say that the whole sequence wa very enjoyable. I enjoyed the choreography of the dead ancestors greatly, and the principals all had their respective characters down to a 'tee'. 'Death Is Just Around The Corner' is one of my all-time favourite Musical Theatre songs and so it is always a pleasure to hear / see it performed again.
The whole company finished the evening in Carnevale style, with the dance 'I Go To Rio'.
There were a whole group on stage this evening who are this year's graduating class, and sadly it was the last time I shall have the pleasure and privilege of seeing them dance together. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them over their time at the school, and indeed they are collectively a huge powerhouse of talent. I wish every one much success, and look forward to seeing them on the professional stage very soon.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 4/7/19
No comments:
Post a Comment